Today’s Top Stories
1. A pair of Palestinians opened fire on Israelis in a cafe in Tel Aviv Sarona Market last night, killing four people and wounding 16. The market is located across the street from the IDF’s headquarters. Hamas claimed the gunmen were its members.
The four victims of the Tel Aviv shooting attack were identified on Thursday as Ido Ben Ari, a 42-year-old resident of Ramat Gan; Ilana Neve, a 39-year-old from Tel Aviv; Michael Feige, a 58-year-old from Midreshet Ben-Gurion; and Mila Mishayev, a 32-year-old resident of Ashkelon.
The Times of Israel updated the latest on the funeral arrangements as this roundup went to press.
The two terrorists — both injured after being shot by responding security — were identified as cousins Muhammad Makhamreh and Khalid Makhamreh from Yatta, a town near Hebron and known Hamas stronghold.
See HonestReporting’s related media critiques:
– Tel Aviv Market Terror Attack: Media Mess Ups
– NZ Herald’s Shocking Inversion of Morality
– Dressed to Kill
– International Business Times Unclear On Who Killed Who
– MSNBC Blames Israel for Getting Shot by Terrorists
Palestinian glorification and promotion of terror is a critical component of the story that news services have an obligation to cover, including celebrations of yesterday’s attack. If you agree, sign our petition.
More on the attack below.
Join the fight for Israel’s fair coverage in the news
2. Netanyahu invited Russia to develop Israel’s gas fields.
3. Squeezed by the US pressure, “most social and medical institutions under Hezbollah’s control are paying their staff in cash to avoid closure of accounts by Lebanese commercial banks,” reports the Daily Star (via Google News). Lebanese banks are complying with US sanctions on banks that do business with Hezbollah.
4. Hypocrisy: Robert Fisk Bemoans Reporting of “False Atrocities”: Veteran journalist trying to sort truth from lies when reporting war crimes should clear out the skeletons in his own closet.
Israel and the Palestinans
• In the aftermath of last night’s attack, Israeli goodwill gestures for Ramadan were cancelled. This included revoking 83,000 permits for Palestinians in the West Bank to visit family members in the Strip and an easing of various security measures.
• What the heck were editors at Australia’s Fairfax Media thinking when they wrote this screwy headline appearing in both the Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. Were the Palestinians dressed to kill?
• The Times of Israel rounds up the international reactions.
• YNet rounds up eyewitness accounts of the carnage.
• Palestinians celebrated the attack.
• To put the attack in perspective, according to Israeli government figures, since September 13, 2015, 38 people have been killed in terror attacks (including a Palestinian, two Americans and an Eritrean), and almost 500 wounded (these numbers don’t include the terrorists themselves). There have been 151 stabbing attacks, 92 shootings, 43 car ramming attacks, and one bus bombing.
• Haaretz takes a closer look at the home-made guns used in yesterday’s and other terror attacks.
• Tweet of the day from IBA News’ Eylon Aslan-Levy:
https://twitter.com/EylonALevy/status/740642866419093504
• In an effort to counter Palestinian incitement, Israel banned eastern Jerusalem funerals for slain terrorists. YNet explains:
This decision comes following the funeral of the terrorist Alaa Abu Jamal several weeks ago that attracted some 200 persons to the Jabel Mukaber cemetery and wherein cries of support for the terrorist and incitement against Israel rang out. This stood in opposition to the agreements and promises of the family . . .
According to the new decision, which has received the minister’s support and authorization, the police will decide the location of the funeral, which will allow full control over the attendees and their actions.
• PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Hamas chief Khaled Mashaal are scheduled to meet in Doha next week. Qatari and Egyptian leaders are pressing Fatah and Hamas to renew reconciliation efforts. Jerusalem Post coverage.
• Israeli archaeologists rush to dig at Cave of Skulls before looters take everything
Around the World
• McGill University‘s judicial committee ruled that motions supporting BDS violate the student constitution.
• British police blasted open a suspicious vehicle parked outside Israel’s embassy in London. The suspicious object seen inside the car turned out to be personal items.
• Fed up with A) the flood of anti-Semitic tweets by Donald Trump’s trolls and B) Twitter’s lack of response, New York Times editor Jonathan Weisman is quitting Twitter.
“I think Twitter should require people to user their real names, like Facebook does,” he said. “Of course people will lie, just as they do on Facebook. But just making people provide a real name and a verifiable email address would help. Twitter is absurd, and the Twitter handles of anti-Semitic, racist trolls aren’t even trying to sound legit.”
I will leave @twitter to the racists, the anti-Semites, the Bernie Bros who attacked women reporters yesterday. Maybe Twitter will rethink
— Jonathan Weisman (@jonathanweisman) June 8, 2016
Commentary/Analysis
• CNN discussed last night’s terror attack with MK and former ambassador Michael Oren and Consul General David Siegel.
• Plenty of commentary weighing in on Tel Aviv terror:
– Raphael Ahren: World’s Israel-friendly reactions to attack don’t herald new-found support
– Eran Suissa: The beating heart of Tel Aviv
– Ben Sales: An attack on my Israeli neighborhood, 4,000 miles away
– Ruthie Blum: ‘Uneaten cake next to pools of blood’
– Yaakov Lappin: The terrorists who slipped through the net
– Amos Harel: A planned, ambitious terror attack
• Rebecca Kilkomerson of Jewish Voices for Peace got op-ed space in the New York Daily News to slam Governor Andrew Cuomo’s executive order against BDS. A Newsday staff-ed also gave the governor a thumbs-down. In case you missed it, see HonestReporting’s posts, BDS Cries McCarthyism and Sorry BDS, Your Boycott Isn’t Free Speech.
• Here’s what else I’m reading today . . .
– Jonathan Tobin: Free speech and anti-BDS laws
– Washington Times: Hypocrisy blacklist (staff-ed)
– Ruth Eglash: Netanyahu’s budding ‘bromance’ with Putin
– Armin Rosen: Why Israel and Russia’s relationship continues to warm
– Benny Avni: Look where the real action is on Mideast peace.
– Jeffrey Goldberg: A brief intro to pro-Holocaust Twitter
– Allison Kaplan Sommer: Are online Jews playing into the hands of anti-Semitic trolls?
– Gary Rosenblatt: An open letter to the college-bound in the age of intersectionality
Featured image: CC BY-SA Tom Woodward with additions by HonestReporting;
For more, see yesterday’s Israel Daily News Stream and join the IDNS on Facebook.
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